Change the description of CONFIG_*HIGHMEM* to reflect "lost" memory due to
PCI space and the existence of the NX flag.
Signed-Off-By: Bodo Eggert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---
I made this quick patch using the information from LKML as I remembered
it. Please verify.
--- 2.6.21/arch/i386/Kconfig.ori 2007-06-06 13:41:09.000000000 +0200
+++ 2.6.21/arch/i386/Kconfig 2007-06-06 14:07:40.000000000 +0200
@@ -495,8 +495,8 @@ config NOHIGHMEM
bool "off"
depends on !X86_NUMAQ
---help---
- Linux can use up to 64 Gigabytes of physical memory on x86 systems.
- However, the address space of 32-bit x86 processors is only 4
+ Linux can use up to 64 Gigabytes of physical address space on x86
+ systems. However, the address space of 32-bit x86 processors is only 4
Gigabytes large. That means that, if you have a large amount of
physical memory, not all of it can be "permanently mapped" by the
kernel. The physical memory that's not permanently mapped is called
@@ -510,8 +510,15 @@ config NOHIGHMEM
by the kernel to permanently map as much physical memory as
possible.
- If the machine has between 1 and 4 Gigabytes physical RAM, then
+
+ If the machine has between 1 and 3.5 Gigabytes physical RAM, then
answer "4GB" here.
+
+ The PCI address space will usurally take 512 MB or 1 GB of address
+ space. This address space is unavailable to RAM, but depending on the
+ chipset (and BIOS settings), memory overlapping the PCI address space
+ may be mapped beyond the 4 GB limit and be available using "64GB".
+
If more than 4 Gigabytes is used then answer "64GB" here. This
selection turns Intel PAE (Physical Address Extension) mode on.
@@ -520,6 +527,10 @@ config NOHIGHMEM
processors (Pentium Pro and better). NOTE: If you say "64GB" here,
then the kernel will not boot on CPUs that don't support PAE!
+ An additional benefit of the 64GB-Mode is the availability of the
+ no-execute-pageflag, which can be used to prevent some attacks from
+ injecting malicious code into applications.
+
The actual amount of total physical memory will either be
auto detected or can be forced by using a kernel command line option
such as "mem=256M". (Try "man bootparam" or see the documentation of
@@ -532,14 +543,14 @@ config HIGHMEM4G
bool "4GB"
depends on !X86_NUMAQ
help
- Select this if you have a 32-bit processor and between 1 and 4
+ Select this if you have a 32-bit processor and between 1 and 3.5
gigabytes of physical RAM.
config HIGHMEM64G
- bool "64GB"
+ bool "64GB (enables no-execute memory protection if available)"
depends on X86_CMPXCHG64
help
- Select this if you have a 32-bit processor and more than 4
+ Select this if you have a 32-bit processor and more than 3.5
gigabytes of physical RAM.
endchoice
--
RAM DISK is not an installation procedure!
-
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